New multicultural education demands for the children with migrant background in Korea
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
New multicultural education demands
for the children with migrant background in Korea
SEONG Sang-Hwan
Université Nationale de Séoul
sseong@snu.ac.kr
Synergies Corée n° 2 - 2011 pp. 123-131
Vers de nouvelles exigences dans l’éducation multiculturelle
pour les enfants issus de l’immigration : le cas sud-coréen.
Résumé : Ces dernières années, les politiques sud-coréennes pour l’éducation
multiculturelle se sont principalement attachées aux enfants d’origine multiraciale nés
en Corée du Sud. Néanmoins, la recherche sur les stratégies de soutien pédagogique
pour les enfants nouvellement arrivés sur le territoire sud-coréen revêt également une
grande importance, car ces enfants sont nés à l’étranger mais de parents sud-coréens.
Ils représentent donc, désormais, la population cible d’une politique éducative qui
exige pour eux une attention toute particulière. Les politiques éducatives précédentes
et les études sur le sujet effectuées jusqu’alors, n’ont fait qu’observer les enfants
nés en Corée suite à l’immigration de leurs parents pour des raisons professionnelles
(travail, études) ou ceux nés en Corée de famille mixte. Cependant, les enfants des
Sud-Coréens vivant à l’étranger sont différents de leurs parents puisqu’ils ne sont pas
nés en Corée mais qu’ils y reviennent avec leurs parents et découvrent alors un nouvel
environnement. La question de l’éducation, autour de cette population particulière, est
donc une question spécifique et complexe, à laquelle le modèle dichotomique existant de
catégorisation de la population multiculturelle soit issue de l’immigration soit issue de la mixité
ne peut s’appliquer. Une politique multiculturelle de soutien à l’éducation pour les enfants
nouvellement arrivés en Corée du Sud devrait donc également voir le jour aux côtés de la prise en
compte des besoins langagiers de ces enfants.
Mots-clés : enseignement multiculturel en Corée, enfants nés de parents coréens à l’étranger,
politique d’enseignement multiculturel en Corée
Summary : In the past years multicultural education policies in Korea have focused on the multiracial
children who were born in Korea. However, the research on educational support strategies for
‘accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children’ holds also great importance. Accompanied/
midway-arrival immigrant children are a policy target population who requires special attention
rather than general attention at the national level. The past policies and research only looked at
the marriage immigrant family students and labor immigrant family students when dealing with
issues around multicultural (multiracial) or immigrant families. However, the accompanied/midway
arrival immigrant children are different from them in that they were not born in Korea and have
entered the country following their parents, or have come upon the invitation of their parents
who have already been living in Korea. The educational issue around this particular population
is a complex and specific one that cannot be explained by the existing dichotomous model of
categorizing the multicultural population as either being marriage immigrants or labor immigrants.
123Synergies Corée n° 2 - 2011 pp. 123-131
Seong Sang-Hwan
Multicultural education support policy for the midway-arrival children should also incorporate
multilingual needs which will help them to develop more abundant cultural asset for themselves.
Keywords : multicultural education in Korea, accompanied midway arrival immigrant children,
multicultural education policy in Korea.
Introductory understanding of multicultural phenomena in Korea
Korea is rapidly becoming a multicultural society. Despite a large inflow of foreigners and
growing number of families with migrant background, many Koreans are yet unfamiliar
with the co-existence of foreign population due to their time-honored tradition of pure-
blood nationalism. Unlike North America, a nation of immigrants from the outset, and
Europe with its multi-ethnic background, Korea faces serious challenges to cope with a
migrant population (cf. Seong 2008). Creating a multicultural society is still a challenge.
As democratic citizens, Koreans should make every endeavor in various areas to live in
harmony with foreign migrants on the basis of a mature citizenship.
Recently, the multicultural phenomenon has come under the spotlight in Korea.
‘Multiculturalism’ represents a kind of ideology applicable to racial, cultural, and ethnic
diversity, which is mirrored in the actual demographic statistics of a certain region.
Korean ways of thinking and the daily lives of Koreans were traditionally dominated by
the mechanisms of the ‘national state’. Under such premises, Korean laws, education,
and social norms have been formulated and implemented, making Korean people
somewhat unaccustomed to the concept of ‘multiculturalism’. However, globalization
and the concept of universal human rights cannot be ignored any more.
Today this phenomenon is undermining current values of national sovereignty, citizenship
and traditional borders. With a huge increase in cross-border migration, the world is
focusing on national policies tailored to social inclusion of foreign migrants and protection
of their human rights. Korean society is no exception to current global trends: we are
experiencing globalization, human rights issues, and a shift towards a multicultural society
in the wake of cross-border migration. The era of migration was introduced with economic
globalization and remarkable breakthroughs in transportation and communications.
As of 2010, cross-border migrants worldwide amounted to about 214 million people,
representing nearly 3% of the global population (IOM World Migration Report 2010).
According to the statistics from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the number of foreign
residents in Korea was 49,000 in 1990, 485,477 in 2005 and over 1.2 million as of July 2010,
recording a 251.2% growth in five years. If this trend continues, the number is expected to
reach 1.57 million in 2012. The more foreigners live in Korea, the more diverse their type
of residence will be. In 2005, over 35,000 international marriages (13.6% of nationwide
marriages) occurred in Korea. This was nearly a seven-fold rise compared with over 5,000
international marriages (3.7% of nationwide marriages) in 1991.
Particularly in fishing and farming areas, international marriages amounted for 35.9% of all
marriages across the region (as of late 2007, the total of marriage migrants were 146,508,
which consist of 44,291 naturalized migrants and 102,217 non-naturalized migrants).
124New multicultural education demands for the children with migrant background in Korea
Korea has already made great strides in becoming a multicultural society. Thus, its
pure-blood nationalism based on the tradition of being a homogenous nation does not
sound plausible at all. Since the 1990s, migrant workers and marriage migrants have
substantially increased in the wake of the aging population and declining fertility rate,
enabling multicultural and multiracial families to increasingly play a crucial role in the
Korean society.
According to the MOJ statistics, Korea’s composition of foreign migrants stood in stark
contrast to that of advanced nations. As of June 2008, migrant distribution by residence
type is as follows: 297,329 overseas Koreans on Korean work visa (26.0%), 212,778 manual
laborers (unprofessional employment) (18.6%), 118,421 marriage migrants (10.3%), 29,895
skilled workers (2.6%) etc. The ratio of manual laborers will be the highest, if Korean
Chinese are included. Based on these statistics, Korea has a long way to verify the viability
of the government’s pledge - strengthening Korea’s global competitiveness through national
opening - which is stipulated in the ‘1st Policy Master Plan on Treatment of Foreigners’
announced in December 2008. In fact, as of July 2010, only about 40,000 are classified
as ‘professionals’; the others would mainly be laborers, students and immigrant wives.
Furthermore, about 20,000 English native speakers teaching English are also included in
the statistics of professionals, showing that non-Koreans working in Korea in professional
jobs will shrink.
At this critical juncture, we should consider how to embrace and unify the growing
multiracial families or families with migrant background following the demographic
changes in rural areas or the declining child birth along with the potential poor class.
Critical assessment of multicultural education research and practice in Korea
Given the rapidly changing multicultural environment in Korea, the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technology in Korea has started dealing with multicultural education issues
policy-wise. Within the past four years, the first year focused on figuring out the reality
of multicultural education policies. The findings of the first year’s research displayed
heightened importance of multicultural education on site, which once was ignored in
the policy arena. Another issue found was that the NGOs and the local governments
have been facing difficulties with multicultural education without a clear direction or
programs to resolve the problems. Especially the NGOs that were thought to be most
fond of multicultural population’s difficulties have started showing their limits in human
and physical resources. The local governments were not operating policies with clear
educational goals, but were focusing on temporary and exhibitory aspects rather than
practical ones. Even though schools have the primary responsibility for multicultural
education, it was found that they do not have the capacity to deal with this issue due to
lack of professionalism in the area (Park & Seong 2008).
During the second year, various on-site issues have been found out and the Ministry
of Education, Science and Technology has started accepting multicultural education
policies. In fact, it was especially difficult to deal with this issue in the past, since
multicultural/ multiracial family issues had been complicated by a mixture of problems
occurring in different fields including public health, human rights, and education. For
these reasons, multicultural education policies have been duplicated among government
agencies, centers, regional governments, NGOs and schools. In turn, multicultural
125Synergies Corée n° 2 - 2011 pp. 123-131
Seong Sang-Hwan
education policies have caused political complications and budget inefficiency. During
the second year, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has shifted its focus
to multicultural education and policies at schools. They have also been putting effort into
gathering various opinions around multicultural education that was dispersed throughout
different societal areas. In order to accomplish this, various multicultural educational
programs have been developed and implemented in the field through reinforcing the
research functions of the National Center for Multicultural Education at SNU and other
regional core research centers and analyzing foreign policy case studies and developing
human resources who will be responsible for multicultural education at schools (core
teacher development) (Park et al. 2008).
During the third year, on-site multicultural policies were implemented based on the
research accomplishments in the past. Especially, multicultural education teacher
development and mentoring programs that were high in practicality have been
distributed widely and the implementation strategies for multicultural education have
been established around the city and provincial offices of education.
The policies operated during the past three years have brought positive changes in the
field of multicultural education. The major accomplishment was having created more
detailed program operation through removing confusions in strategies, operation entities
and goals of multicultural education while propelling policy issues. The strong will of
the central government for operation and support has catalyzed the research among the
core center and regional centers. They have also flourished the discussions among related
academia, thus, contributing in promoting dialogues regarding multicultural education
overall.
Along with the positive changes, however, there have also been negative changes as well.
It is assumed that these problems have occurred due to the fact that these policies are all
unprecedented, and this fundamental policy limit from the central government should be
considered. These policies can only focus on general issues at the national level rather than
on understanding and caring for specific issues. However, problems regarding multicultural
education embrace a great variation depending on individual school’s characteristics,
multiracial family students’ background variables. For example, some regions have
high interest in multicultural education because there is a large number of immigrant
population (e.g., Ansan City in Kyungki Province). On the other hand, other regions do
not even feel the need for multicultural education because there are no multiracial or
immigrant family students. Moreover, some multiracial family students are born in Korea
so they have no difficulty in speaking the language, while others enter the country during
their adolescence and have trouble even with the most basic communication.
Other issues are around the limits of the policy entity, the Ministry of Education, Science
and Technology. The targets of the policies from the Ministry of Education, Science, and
Technology are the regional school district offices and schools. Therefore, the multiracial
family children, parents and educational programs that are outside the physical boundary
of schools are in fact hid behind the blind spots of these policies. The problem occurs
when the actual multicultural education issues are not only manifested at schools but also
visible outside schools. The multicultural education issues occurring beyond the scope
of the school system need to be addressed with various policy entities’ cooperation and
mutual interactions. However, the efforts have not yielded desirable results so far. Some
of the urgent educational issues are presented in the following chapter.
126New multicultural education demands for the children with migrant background in Korea
Multicultural education demands for accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant
children
Based on these critical points, ‘the research on educational support strategies for
accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children’ holds great importance (Seong et al.
2010). First, accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children are policy target population
who require special attention rather than general attention at the national level. The past
policies and research only looked at the marriage immigrant family students and labor
immigrant family students when dealing with issues around multicultural (multiracial) or
immigrant families. However, the accompanied/midway arrival immigrant children are
different from them in that they were not born in Korea and have entered the country
following their parents, or have come upon the invitation of their parents who have
already been living in Korea. The educational issue around this particular population is
a complex and specific one that cannot be explained by the existing dichotomous model
of categorizing the multicultural population as either being marriage immigrants or labor
immigrants.
First, the age of the midway-arrival immigrants has a great influence on education. Those
who enter the country at a relatively young age may adapt to the Korean society easily.
However, those who enter during their adolescence may experience more difficulties in
adjusting to the new culture.
Second, in the case of accompanied/midway-arrival, their family members have suddenly
changed. Due to this reason, there may be additional conflicts in their own families. It
is usually not a problem, if the foreign parents invited the children from their country of
origin. However, when the marriage immigrant husband or wife invites their children who
were born from their marriage with their previous spouse, it may easily cause familial
conflicts. In fact, problems such as these do call for family disintegration at times.
Third, problems regarding legal status occur as well. The accompanied/midway-arrival
immigrants usually receive the F-1 visa (visiting co-habitation visa) that only guarantees
residence and prevents them from receiving any other social benefits. Currently, there
is no statistical data that specifically shows the current state of the multicultural family
children’s accompanied/midway-arrival immigrants. Therefore, the current research has
attempted an analysis on the F-1 visa immigrants through annual and monthly statistical
reports from the data on immigration and policies for foreigners collected by the Ministry
of Justice. Moreover, we have attempted to find out the families with accompanied/
midway-arrival immigrants among the current multicultural families by adding to the
data from complete enumeration survey on multicultural family reality conducted
by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Ministry of Health and Welfare, and
Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in 2009. After examining the F-1 visa immigrants’
current status, we have learned that the number of F-1 visa immigrants is increasing.
Furthermore, countries such as China, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam and Russia show
high number of F-1 immigrants. Overall, there are greater numbers of women than men,
which shows many cases of marriage immigration. After examining the research from
the Ministry of Public Administration and Security on different types, nationality, and
gender of foreign residents in 2009, the portion of the foreign population which includes
the accompanied/midway-arrival immigrants in their families amounts to 9.7% of the
entire foreign residents in Korea. This is a 79.4% increase from 2008. Especially because
127Synergies Corée n° 2 - 2011 pp.123-131
Seong Sang-Hwan
foreigner residents’ children below the age of 7-12 are 86.3%, the educational support
of the young children is desperately needed.
Given these three factors, it seems natural that the educational problems that these
accompanied/midway-arrival immigrants face have been hid behind the blind spots of
policies. However, there have been continuous requests for necessary on-site policy
alternatives for them. It is true that the policies from the Ministry of Education, Science
and Technology did not put the fullest effort into bringing out alternative policies by
merely focusing on general issues at the national level and school-focused multicultural
education. However, we cannot put this problem aside when the number of this
population is growing fast. This should be an important opportunity for turning the
quantitative expansion into the qualitative intensification of the policies of the Ministry
of Education, Science and Technology.
How to meet the educational demands for the accompanied/midway-arrival
immigrant children: Language education and tailored programs
The use of the term “accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children” may be
unfamiliar to many. However, this population, part of multicultural family (immigrant)
children, has gradually been increasing in number in the current Korean society. Since
these children display different characteristics from the marriage immigrant children
who were born in Korea, the same educational programs cannot be applied to both
groups. As a result, the demands for multicultural education for accompanied/midway-
arrival immigrant children have occurred, and the development and implementation of
appropriate educational programs and policies for this population became urgent. The
current study examined this newly emerging population in depth by analyzing various
statistical data. Based on this analysis, a conference was held for the teachers who work
with the accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children at various schools including
alternative schools for multiracial or immigrant children and schools that offer special
classes for this population. The data for this study was collected on accompanied/midway-
arrival immigrant children’s needs and demands that are essential for multicultural
education during the beginning stage of their immigration into the Korean society.
According to the data, there is an immense need for a systematic analysis on the reality
of the accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children. Even for this study, multiple
attempts were made to gather any data on this population using multicultural family
fact findings, statistical data on immigration and policies for foreigners collected by
the existing organizations such as the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs,
Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and Ministry
of Justice. However, there were no data that explicitly captured the current situation
of the accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children and, thus, we could only draw
hypothetic conclusions from the existing research. In order to prepare for educational
policy alternatives, the primary task should be to examine the reality of the accompanied/
midway-arrival immigrant children based on accurate understanding of their statistics.
The second point mentioned in the data is the need for a designated management of
the stronghold schools for accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children. The data
also suggest that there are almost no alternative schools that recognize the unique
qualities of the multiracial or immigrant students and offer education from elementary
through high school. Moreover, since many of these schools are managed by donations
128New multicultural education demands for the children with migrant background in Korea
and support from religious organizations, there is a possibility that their systems may not
operate properly due to external causes such as lack of teachers and budget deficit (cf.
Oh, 2010). Even worse, while many of these accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant
children are school-aged, there are not many schools that are ready to offer admissions
to these children. A number of them do not end up obtaining the Korean nationality,
which continues to thwart them from receiving proper school education. Therefore,
stronghold schools that help these children’s initial stage of immigration should be
established in respective regions so that these students could be eventually admitted or
transferred to regular schools without difficulties.
Thirdly, there should be unique educational programs for accompanied/midway-arrival
immigrant children that are different from the ones that have generally been used for the
existing multiracial or multicultural family children. The accompanied/midway-arrival
immigrant children display different characteristics from other multicultural children
who were born in Korea. Moreover, there are differences in school adjustment patterns
depending on their time/age of accompanied/midway-arrival to Korea. Some of them
may have already started receiving formal education and forming their national and self-
identity from their country of origin based on the societal and cultural background of the
respective countries. This cognitive, emotional and psychological development could, in
turn, heighten the confusion and anxiety at the time of their arrival (Short 2010). The
students who arrive before the age of adolescence (during the elementary school) often
regain security in the Korean society and become adjusted quite easily. On the other
hand, students who arrive after the age of adolescence tend to display much slower rate
of adjustment and acquisition of Korean. Due to these difficulties in adjustment as well
as confusion and anxiety in the new society, some of them do not attend schools and end
up wandering around or staying home to help with housekeeping work, not being able
to participate in any social activities. Consequently, among the multiracial children or
children of immigrants, a closer attention and a broader perspective are required for
these accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children than the existing ones who were
born in Korea. For more specific responses to the current situation, educational programs
that help these students with their identity development and psychological security
should be provided. For those who have already adjusted to the language of their origin,
opportunities for them to learn Korean systematically as a second language (KSL) should
be available.
Furthermore, since the educational programs for the accompanied/midway-arrival
immigrant children have not been systemized by age, they require reorganization. The
existing Korean educational programs have been developed according to students’ age.
If the same standards were applied to accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children,
it would be difficult for them to become adjusted to the current educational programs.
Therefore, even for other multicultural or multiracial children, there is a strong need
to develop appropriate programs for different age groups and qualities. For example,
as mentioned earlier, for the accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children who have
already acquired the culture and language in their country of origin, their education should
receive special attention that is distinguished from the one received by other multiracial
children born in Korea. For those who are at the age of adolescence, there should be a
greater educational emphasis on developing self-identity and the ability to form social
relationships than those who are below the age of adolescence. Moreover, the current
school programs for the multiracial family students should be examined further. Nowadays,
129Synergies Corée n° 2 - 2011 pp. 123-131
Seong Sang-Hwan
schools tend to focus on English for the bilingual education requirement. However, this
may merely be an alternative exit for solving problems such as lack of human resources for
bilingual education. For these reasons, professional teacher development for [heritage]
language education is immediately called for in order to carry out effective bilingual
education for the accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children.
Oh (2010) suggests operating classes on Korean language acquisition and Korean school
adjustment as a stepping stone, specifically for the students who do not speak fluent
Korean language. Through operating theses stepping stone classes, students should
be able to receive a 1:1 personalized education that suits their Korean language level
and learning ability. For these classes, differentiated educational curriculum for each
level should be developed. Furthermore, taking into account the unique qualities of
the multicultural children including their experience of living abroad and their level of
Korean language, a reference to the “no-grade-level operation” may be necessary in
order to make graded education easier. Here, “no-grade-level operation” would need to
examine the way in which it chooses one’s grade level depending on students’ time of
arrival and educational level.
In order to enhance personality development and self-esteem of the accompanied/
midway-arrival immigrant children, effort should be put into creating a cooperative
and integrative learning environment with the current Korean students. It can be done
by cultivating students’ affect through strengthening the arts and physical education
sector such as fine arts, music, and physical education.
The fourth point to make is the need for providing education not only for the accompanied/
midway-arrival immigrant children but also for their parents (Cho, 2007; Lee et al,
2009). Recently, the number of accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children has
been increasing as many children come after their parent who got remarried in Korea.
As they arrive in Korea, these children encounter great anxiety upon the arrival of a
new country on top of an already stressful new environment, a remarried family. All of
these factors accumulate into a massive amount of stress, and sometimes it can be even
worse because it is highly likely that these children are going through a major emotional
and cognitive development during this time. In order to help the situation, education
is necessary for both the children and the parents. These educational programs should
provide information on what parents need to know in order to support children’s emotional
security and their school admissions, career development and socialization. Most of
the times, both the mother and the father of accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant
children need to work because these families are often economically disadvantaged,
which makes it even more difficult for them to find resources for their children’s
education. In response to this demand, providing information on how to transfer or be
admitted to schools as well as giving a general picture of children’s school days would
be essential. By educating parents on parents’ role and family environment in remarried
families, the accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant children‘s socialization in the
Korean society upon the arrival in a new country would become much easier.
Another point is the need for counseling programs to assist for the accompanied/midway-
arrival immigrant children’s emotional security. Some of these children may have
immigrated to Korea after their socialization strategies have already been developed in
their country of origin. Additionally, many of them have come to Korea through adoption
130New multicultural education demands for the children with migrant background in Korea
of parents’ remarriage. Due to these factors, and especially if these children are in
their adolescence, their psychological and emotional anxiety would peak around the
time of their first arrival. Consequently, it is urgently required that school counselors be
distributed through counseling support programs for the accompanied/midway-arrival
immigrant children so that their confusions created while maintaining their identity and
adjusting to the Korean society would be reduced.
Finally, government support for the education of accompanied/midway-arrival immigrant
children would be crucial. Currently, many of the schools that accompanied/midway-
arrival immigrant children attend are non-authorized alternative schools. Besides, many
of these children are not able to obtain admissions even to these schools and be prevented
from receiving higher education. This is because these schools do not have special teachers
to meet the needs for these children and also because they are worried that these children
would drop school’s educational achievement level. In practical response to this situation,
‘consigned alternative schools’ can be suggested. This system will be carried out by leaving
students’ records in regular schools and having the students attend alternative schools in
order to develop necessary skills to eventually receive standard education from regular
schools. This would be a sensible strategy that considers both the school and the students.
Bibliography
Cho, H.-Y. 2007. Study on the current school life situation of the children with migrant background
and the receptivity between teachers and students. National Youth Policy Institute. Korea.
International Organization of Migration. 2010. The Future of Migration: Building Capacities for
Change. World Migration Report. Seoul : International Organization of Migration.
Lee, J.-B. et al. 2009. Study on the current situation of education support and demand for the
multicultural (migrant) families at Korean schools. Seoul : Korean Educational Development Institute.
Oh, S.-B. 2010. A feasibility study on establishing and operating a public multicultural alternative
school at Incheon, Incheon : Metropolitan City Office of Education.
Park, S.-H. & Seong, S.-H. 2008. « Critical review on multicultural education policy in Korea ».
Education Research and Practice. Vol. 72, pp19-60. Center for Educational Research, Seoul National
University.
Park, S.-H. et al. 2008. International comparative study on multicultural education policy. Research
report for Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Seoul : National Center for Multicultural
Education.
Seong, S.-H. 2008. « Multicultural education in Europe and its implications for Korea ». The SNU
Journal of Education Research. Vol. 17: pp 95-110.
Seong, S.-H. et al. 2010. Study on the education demands for accompanied/midway-arrival
immigrant children. Research report for Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Seoul :
National Center for Multicultural Education.
Short, E.L. et al. 2010. Counseling immigrants and refugees. In: Handbook of Multicultural
Counseling. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
131You can also read
